Some explanation of the phenomenon may be useful. Despite the fact that there are thousands of planes going to tens of thousands of locations around the world, over half the US population has been in an airplane less than 5 times. Many have never been on a plane at all. Well over half the US population lives (and will die) within 100 miles of where they were born. Those people simply do not comprehend the idea of just picking up and moving somewhere. They look at it in terms of how they would react and they feel that it would be a chore. Since you're willing to do it, then there must be a huge reason why you'd be happy to do it!

My recommendation is to do one (or more) of the following:

• Look for a contract position. There are thousands of open contract positions, even in Perl. (If you know Java, this is even easier.) Look for a position that's less than 6 months, particularly one where the company does not intend to hire or extend. Then, take it. You're expected to look for another job while you're on this one, so going to interviews won't be taken the wrong way.
• Use your network. Hit up every one of your friends. Make new friends in your target cities. Tell them you are desperately seeking anything in their area just so you can move near them.

If you're interested in moving to the Columbus Ohio area (where my 2400 sqft house was around $200k), I can hook you up. Especially if you know Java. :-)